Monday, November 5, 2007

J.No! Lopez’s demands anger her labelBy Courtney HazlettThe Scoopupdated 11:40 a.m. ET, Tues., Oct. 30, 2007 Jennifer Lopez might have to start looking for a new label if she wants to make another original record. A source close to Epic Records and Epic’s parent company, Sony BMG, says that the label is fed up not only with J.Lo’s paltry album sales, but with the amount of money it’s costing to promote the diva.

“She costs too much money and doesn’t sell enough,” says the source, who is familiar with the issue. “Her last album cover alone cost $60,000 in hair and makeup, lighting, photographers, re-touching, etc. The video budget was in the neighborhood of $300,000.”

And that’s just what it costs to get the album out the door. Lopez performed on “Good Morning America” earlier this month, and all the costs were absorbed by the label. “Epic had to eat the cost for that entire performance. From her makeup — which typically costs in the neighborhood of $8,000 per day — to the backup singers, to the rigging, lighting and sound,” says a source close to the Lopez camp. “The woman requires everything short of flying monkeys to get on a stage.”

Lopez also appeared on “Dancing With the Stars,” and a source who is familiar with the standard costs of performing on the ABC hit estimates that it cost Lopez and her label at least $60,000.Lopez has been promoting “Brave,” her first studio album to not debut in the top 10 on Billboard’s charts. “Brave” was released Oct. 9 and sold only 53,000 copies in its first week. The record label makes an average of $4 per CD, according to most estimates. Any way you do the math, the label is not coming close to breaking even on Lopez.

“Sony and Epic might keep her,” a source who is familiar with the situation says, “but she’ll be doing little more than greatest hits albums. That you can do without incurring a huge cost. The label is tired of throwing money away.”

J. Lo won't go down as the first artist to sell an album via flash drive, but she's certainly raising the bar concerning price. Apparently, Gresso has landed an agreement with Sony BMG Music Entertainment that allows it to distribute Lopez's "Brave" album on the Adam&Eve flash drive, which features 1GB of storage and is crafted from African Mahogany or African Blackwood. Word on the street has this one landing later this month for around $70, and while it's only a supposition, we could definitely see this thing selling better without the musical connection.

This new USB flash drive — containing the entirety of Jennifer Lopez’s new album Brave — is made from African Blackwood. According to Wikipedia, the tree is severely threatened in Kenya and needing attention in Tanzania and Mozambique. Not only are they being harvested at an increasing rate, but their slow growth of over 60 years to maturity means they are incredibly susceptible to unsustainable management.